Name: ______Date: ______Class: ______

Soil Biosolarization Activity Handout

ENGINEERING TEAM NAME:

Member names:

Roles:Each member of the engineering team is an agricultural engineer. While all team members are responsible to participate in all components of the experimental activity, each team member is also responsible for a specific task. Designate your individual team member tasks:

READER:

WRITER:

SPEAKER:

ORGANIZER:

Session 1:Experiment Setup

  1. Measure the volume of theseed starter pots using the graduated container:
  1. Use the graduated container to fill the pot with soil and record the volume of the pot.
  2. Calculate95% of the volume of the pot. 95% of the pot’s volume will be soil.
  3. Calculate 5% of the volume of the pot. 5% of the pot’s volume will be “organic waste.”

Make sure you use the correctunits.

/ Name / Value / Unit / Equation
Pot Volume(Vpot)
95% Volume (Vsoil) /
5% Volume(Vfood) /
  1. Fill three pots with only soil.
  1. Fill the otherthree pots with 95% soil and 5% organic waste (such as oatmeal).
  1. Once the pots are ready,plant10 seeds in each pot. Record the number of seeds in Table 1, on the last page of this handout.
  1. Place a container or tray under the six pots. Water the pots until water comes outof the bottom. Then cover the pots with plastic wrap.
  1. Move the pots to a sunny indoor spot and leave them for solarization for at least 1 day (no more than 1 week is recommended).

Session 2: Data Collection (1 day after Session 1)

  1. Remove the plastic wrapfrom all the pots.
  2. Smell every pot and record your observations in Table 1.
  3. Measure and record in Table 1 the temperature of each pot.

Session 3: Data Collection and Analysis(1 week after Session 2)

  1. Count the number of seedlings in every pot and record the counts in Table 1.
  1. Calculate the weed seed inactivation using the following equation:
  1. Which of the experiments eliminated the most weeds?
    Explain your answer using results from the experiment.

Soil Biosolarization Activity—Soil BiosolarizationActivity Handout1

Name: ______Date: ______Class: ______

Table 1. Experiment measurements, observations and calculations.

Session 1 / Session 2 / Session 3
Treatment / ID / Volume soil (ml) / Volume waste(ml) / #seeds / Temp. (°C) / Does it smell?
Describe the smell. / # plants / % seeds inactivated
Control-1
Control-2
Control-3
Mean Control
Treatment-1
Treatment-2
Treatment-3
Mean treatment

Additional notes:

Soil Biosolarization Activity—Soil BiosolarizationActivity Handout1